A Hopeless Endeavor
by CheesyWaffles
Summary: Quick Gears of War 2 oneshot. Gamma squad's in trouble, so it's up to the Carmines to save the day...and all that.


Bullets singed the air like fiery hail, giving a moment of menacing sound before burying themselves in concrete, in wood…in the corpses of the fallen. Blood marked the street in a gruesome tapestry as signs of those who had given their lives in vain. The rain that had attempted to cleanse the air had ceased, and the smell of death and rot rose into the air once more.

A soldier cowered behind a row of concrete roadblocks, all of which were degrading rapidly from the rain of gunfire peppering them. Her helmet sat on the ground next to her, smoke seeping lightly from the shattered visor. She checked the ammunition remaining in her little snub-nosed pistol and found seven shots left in the chamber. The click of the clip returning home sounded somber and hopeless.

She was the only one left.

Bullets continued to rend the air to tatters above her head. When she _had_ managed to get a look over the cover, the soldier had been able to see three of them – three of those growling monsters with skin like cracked stone and rust-colored guns that glowed with eerie orange light. She had no idea how many of them were there now, but she knew they were coming for her. The Locust never stopped coming.

A grenade exploded nearby without warning. The shock of the blast knocked the girl over and almost jarred the gun from her hand. Her head smacked the unyielding concrete of the roadblock before the rest of her body slammed into the ground. She let out a strangled cry as the wind was pounded out of her lungs. For a moment, she was unable even to hear her own voice as a high-pitched ring filled her ears. A fine layer of dust rained down, turning the girl's bright red shock of hair to a dull crimson. She laid there for a moment, gasping for breath.

The girl pushed herself back up onto her knees, squinting in an effort to steady her dancing vision. She reached up to grasp the edge of the concrete barrier just before a low growl emanated from beyond her range of sight. The soldier's neck snapped upward as one of the creatures peered over at her, its beady eyes burning with malice. Her body jerked to the side as she swung her pistol arm to bear at the Locust's face. The sudden movement threw the girl off balance and sent her thumping against the ground once more. Her finger squeezed the trigger as she fell, but the shot went wide.

The monster on the other side of the wall grinned a grin of crooked teeth. As the human girl hit the asphalt, it raised its gun with one clawed hand and fired. Flame belched from the gun's muzzle and ripped a hole in the girl's shoulder. She screamed as bits of flesh rode a stream of blood from the fresh rift in her back to the ground, mixing with the dust.

Before she could react, the Locust drone had vaulted over the barrier and knocked the pistol from the girl's hand with the butt of his rifle. The creature kicked her once, hard, in the ribs, then bent down and took a rough hold on her wounded shoulder. As the monster moved its other hand toward her face, the girl squeezed her eyes shut.

***

"No," Private Silen snapped, his voice harsh through his helmet's intercom, "I _don't_ know why we're here. Command says we're set up as…what was that again?"

"Ah, precautionary measures." Private Helmes replied.

"Right, that. Sounds more like they're getting' us outta the way, you ask me."

"Why do ya say that, Joey?" Private Jackson interjected, absentmindedly rubbing the barrel of his rifle. "We've got this post in case the Locust-"

"Ain't any Locust gonna come through here!" Silen interrupted. He gave a wide, frustrated gesture at the buildings around them; old imulsion stations, restaurants, a post office. "We're in the middle of the city, and command's got us set up over a hunch one'a their little 'strategists' came up with. It's a dead end, man."

The final member of the four-man squad chose this moment to pipe up. Private Elsis was at least a head shorter than her comrades, and one of the relatively few females to have joined the Gears. She hefted her assault rifle, causing it to appear huge in proportion to the soldier who carried it, and spoke.

"But what if they _do_ show up here, Silen? Is that even a possibility?"

"Sure it's a possibility," he said, "everything's a possibility, but that's the best part! This position they're sendin' us to – any locust come at all, there's gonna be a ton of 'em! Way too many for us to hold off. Either way, this deal is crap."

Silen's less-than-cheery attitude, though perhaps correct, certainly wasn't helping the situation. The other three were all fresh out of basic – he was the only one with any combat experience whatsoever – and the pre-fight jitters were hitting them rather fiercely. Jackson kept stroking his gun like he was trying to buff the paint off of it, while Helmes rhythmically tapped the chest plate of his armor. Though Elsis' suit was several sizes too large, it was obvious that her legs were shaking violently.

Silen may have been cynical about their chances of meeting opposition, but the others weren't so sure. The enemy, the Locust, had been attacking nearby cities more resourcefully and with more fervency than ever, and no one seemed to know what their next move would be. The city they were in right now didn't even reside on the same solid plateau that Jacinto did – for all they knew, the city could simply be sunk under their feet.

Silen continued to trudge forward, ahead of the squad, mumbling to himself and fiddling angrily with his rifle. Helmes leaned over to Elsis and gave her a soft punch on the shoulder guard of her armor.

"Don't worry, Shrimp," he whispered, though he had already switched to private connection with her helmet. "Joey's probably right. The possibility of seeing grubs around here _is _pretty low. We probably won't even-"

Helmes' reassurance was cut short by the cracking report of a sniper rifle. Three helmets swiveled to the left, focusing of Pvt. Jackson. The soldier gurgled and fell to his knees, letting the rifle he had been rubbing so violently slip out of his hands and clatter across the street. Slowly, horribly slowly, Jackson's hands migrated toward his neck. A quarter-sized hole in the Gear's throat gushed blood that trickled down his chest like a tiny red river. Time slowed to a crawl as their friend toppled over, twitching.

"…oh dear God…" Helmes choked, after what felt like minutes.

"**Get**_** DOWN!**_" Silen screamed as he tackled Elsis to the ground, knocking Helmes' legs out from under him in the process. The three soldiers landed in a crumpled heap just behind a concrete roadblock that had been planted near the center of the street. Practically the moment that the three of them had landed out of sight, a storm of bullets flew through the air above their heads. Bits of concrete quickly began to chip away and shoot randomly into the air.

Helmes shouted something that couldn't be heard over the cacophony of death singing above them, then looked up and fired a quick burst in the general direction of their opposition. When he came back down, terror could be heard in his voice.

"There's a ton of 'em out there!" he shouted, remembering to switch on his intercom this time. "We've got to-"

"Shut up, kid!" yelled Silen as he jerked his thumb across his throat and pointed to the side of his helmet, indicating that he was making a call.

"Command!" he shouted, so loud that his voice could be heard through his helmet, "This is Private Joseph Silen of Gamma Squad requesting immediate assistance at zone 7-A! I repeat-"

An explosion rocked the ground, knocking them off of their feet. Elsis shook her head groggily and began to struggle from underneath Silen, who had fallen on top of her just after the detonation. The front of his armor was twisted and black; acrid smoke oozed from the metal.

A grenade had landed practically at his feet, and killed their makeshift commanding officer instantly. The girl had no idea if his call for reinforcements had made it through. She was still staring at the soldier's scorched corpse when a hand grabbed her by the collar of her armor and yanked her backwards.

A sniper's bullet hammered through the air and buried itself in the earth, missing her head by inches. She looked up to see Helmes crouched over her, the visor of his helmet emitting soft blue light.

"Watch yourself, shrimp."

That was the last thing he said before a pair of scaly arms gripping a shotgun slithered over the little wall, aimed, and blew Pvt. Helmes' head across the road. Bits of meat and metal skittered to a stop scattered patterns across the asphalt as the soldier's limp body slumped forward.

The last surviving member of Gamma squad screamed, whipped her weapon upward, and emptied a clip into the creature's face. The drone grunted in confusion as a maelstrom of lead tore its head apart, then fell backward with the force of the impacts. Still shrieking like a feral animal, Private Elsis slammed a fresh clip of ammunition into her rifle and continued to pepper the twitching corpse with gunfire.

Just moments after she exposed her head, a freight train slammed into her helmet, jarring her neck violently and knocking the young soldier onto her back. Searing heat poured through the blackness and stung her eyes, bringing about the necessity to rip off her damaged helmet and toss it aside. Her sight now free, she could see that a sniper had given a glancing shot to the viewscreen of her helmet, shattering it but not penetrating the interior.

Elsis' helmet was now useless – in addition to that, the sniper had knocked the rifle from her hands and into no-man's land. The only weapon she had left was a small pistol with limited ammunition. The girl removed the little gun from her belt and cradled it softly in her hand. Ponderously, she brought the weapon to her face and pressed a soft cheek against the cold metal as a light rain began to fall.

***

"Get off 'er, you nasty piece of-"

The rest of the sentence was drowned out by a burst of gunfire. Elsis grimaced as the creature standing over her convulsed and snarled an inhuman retort. The girl opened her eyes to see that the Locust now stood upright, facing someone she could not see. Thick blood oozed from a hole in the monster's shoulder. The thing raised its gun to aim at something, but moved too slowly.

A series of thumping footfalls warned Elsis of someone running towards her just before it happened; a soldier, dressed in the uniform of a gear, surged into her vision. Before the Locust could react, the soldier revved the chainsaw bayonet of his rifle and plunged the blade into the creature's body. Gore splattered in all directions as the drone was cleft in two; its twitching halves continued to roar alien curses until the soldier raised an armored boot and kicked the thing's remains back over the barrier.

"Take it, meatsack!" the soldier shouted and made a rude gestured toward the enemy, then made a little noise and ducked as a swarm of bullets hit the air where he had been standing. He looked back up and Elsis followed his gaze to a second soldier who had quietly taken position on the other side.

"Can you hold 'em down for a second, Anthony?" the first soldier asked, jerking a thumb towards the enemy.

Anthony met his gaze, nodded, and started throwing lead into the warzone. Elsis' rescuer looked down at her once more and raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey."

Elsis took a moment before sleepily answering.

"…hi."

"You alright, kid?"

"Ah…my shoulder…"

He took a quick glance at the girl's wounded shoulder. Without pause, he grabbed a roll of gauze from his pack and, tearing the strip into two pieces, plugged the holes in her armor.

"There you go." He said.

"Thanks…um…"

"Ben. Ben Carmine. And that-" he pointed towards the second soldier, who tossed a grenade at that moment in emphasis, "-that's my brother, Anthony. We got your commander's distress call a while ago.

"My squad," Elsis whispered, barely audibly, "m-my friends…" tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.

Ben stared at her for a moment, the glowing blue eyes of his visor devoid of emotion. Softly, he placed a gloved hand on her shoulder and moved his "face" a little closer to hers.

"Shh, it's alright." He said, his voice soothing. "we've got you now, alright? You're safe."


End file.
